When Ben Wolf asked me to design a cover for a spin-off novella of his Santa Saves Christmas series (in which Santa fights zombie reindeer, raptors, and possibly Cthulhu) I jumped on the opportunity. I’ve been trying to diversify my cover portfolio, and my fiction was lacking—plus, it’s Ben Wolf’s Christmas series. There’s a puffin. There’s fighting Putin. There’s insanity.
Cover Design for ‘Flight to the Fairy Meadow’
This was a speed design I did for a local Pensacola author. She needed an immediate and simple cover for her ebook and specifically asked the type to be “fancy.”
Cover Design for HAVOK Season 6: Casting Call
While working with other designers on what we call “story covers” for published flash fiction, I was given the opportunity to joint-design season six’s anthology cover, Casting Call with Teddi Deppner, who leads Marketing.
Book Design for To The Stars
I was able to design Grace Ingles’s senior portfolio project for her professional writing degree. I loved being able to do illustrations this semester, and had fun laying out the interior designs for this book in particular. I was able to play off of the design and color scheme of The Girl Who Drank The Moon, and use a similar typography as the Lunar Chronicles, which I really enjoyed.
Cover Design for Santa Omnibus
When you go to college, you go to get a degree, to pursue your dreams, to get a serious job when you graduate. I did all of these things. And then some days I have the non-serious job.
Cover Design for “GRACE and Salt”
This was a longer-term project dating back to the summer months, but the book is officially up for pre-order! I had the pleasure to design a biblical leadership book for Melissa McCormick of MX3 Business solutions.
Cover Design and Behind the Scenes for Queen of the Rockies Series
This was out of my usual comfort zone, because I don’t think I’ve ever designed a romance book, let alone a historical romance book, but it was a fun opportunity nonetheless. Angela already had books 1-4 designed, so I had the extra challenge to mimic her typography and style, while also finding stock images that represented her story well. For Bride of the Rockies, I had to rebuild the World Fair in the background. I relied heavily on public domain historical images for the skyline, and more adjustment layers than I even want to think about. For Flame of the Rockies, I was actually able to use some old drafts from an entirely different cover, so the background went much faster. I was able to essentially drop it in place and put my focus on the model and lighting. I guess this is why I hoard old Photoshop files. You never know if you’re going to be able to make something out of them.
Book Design for “Efflorescence”
I had the opportunity to design the cover and interiors for another professional writing student at my alma mater. Since designing your own book isn’t a requirement for this class, students often enlist the help of their art major friends. In my case, I offer to do the full cover and interiors at a discounted price for PCC students.
Book Design for “After the Fire”
At my alma mater, seniors studying Professional Writing must compile their best writing samples—including fiction, poetry, advertisements, and essays—and publish them in a physical portfolio at the end of the semester. Most PW majors enlist friends or hire out the design work so they can better focus on editing their pieces, and I’ve enjoyed doing a number of portfolios for the last few years. This was Emily Thompson’s final portfolio design. She wanted an artistic flair to the cover similar to my PCC Survival Guide book. Many of her portfolio pieces demonstrated themes of hope and revival from difficult or trying times in life, and she wanted to correlate that theme with the fireweed blossoms that grow up after devastating forest fires. For this reason, I decided to play with color clashing with monochromatic greys. I deliberately chose to make the edges of the book charred and ashy looking, but as the blossoms come into the foreground, I wanted them to become bright and colorful.
Cover Design for “Power Author 2”
This is my first sequel design, and I couldn’t be happier with it. Power Author 1 was my first “big break” in cover design, and since then I’ve enjoyed partnering with Ben Wolf on other books. I guess he liked the first one enough to book me for the series. *cheers*